Political Thought
Writing from the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation, GianCarlo Canaparo offers a short explainer of why standing matters in legal proceedings and how the judiciary is currently making a mess of it. Both of those points are valuable to read, because the reason to limit cases based on standing…
Progressive Democrat State Representative Michelle McGaw tweeted something last night that raises an interesting question few discuss but many probably ponder. As shown in the featured image for this post, she posted a picture of the Sakonnet River Bridge, apparently taken from the bike path, showing that its changeable lights were shining in a rainbow.…
One might have thought Leftist Democrats would take a pause on the project to destroy the suburbs — if not to genuinely reevaluate things in light of the lessons about density learned from COVID-19, then at least to put some distance between their activism and the pandemic’s uncomfortable questions. One would have been wrong. Annie…
So suggests Hans von Spakovsky, reviewing some studies of apportionment and the effects of including non-citizens while calculating each state’s share of representation in Congress: In 2015, the Congressional Research Service did an analysis of how representation in the House would have changed after the 2010 Census if apportionment had been based on the 2013…
Watching local government is a great way to learn how politics really works and to observe how representative democracy can deteriorate into an exercise of raw power.
In fascinating juxtaposition to the excuse-making that progressive Democrat U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is enjoying, the folks from Direct Actions for Rights and Equality (DARE) marched in protest of money given to the Nonviolence Institute. Courtney Carter reported on it for WPRI: This week, [organizer Cedric] Russell co-released a public letter addressed to the institute,…
Continuing to dig into the shady (yet, completely ordinary) behind-the-scenes maneuvers of Rhode Island’s governing class when it comes to South Kingstown Schools’ fight with local mom Nicole Solas, William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection reports that the Rhode Island School Superintendents Association (RISSA) is working to reduce Rhode Islanders access to public information by changing the Access…
For years, I’ve presented the history and condition of Lawrence, Massachusetts, as an example that Rhode Island shouldn’t follow — namely, becoming a place that seeks to import clients for government services for which local, state, and federal taxpayers can be billed. Given that recurring theme, I bookmarked this press release from the U.S. Attorney’s…
Michael Esfeld provides a helpful frame for our current moment, writing for the American Institute for Economic Research, with reference to Karl Popper’s The Open Society and its Enemies: The open society is characterized by recognizing every human being as a person: the person has an inalienable dignity. When we think and act, we are free.…
A Friday press release from the office of Governor Daniel McKee inches Rhode Island toward reopening. It’s actually very difficult to interpret the meaning of the press release, because it’s poorly written and it’s not clear where restrictions have been lifted and where they’re being modified. But this appears to be the set of changes:…